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A novelization by Jonathan Margetts

Based upon the Screen Story by George A. Romero & Peter Grunwald

And based upon the computer game by Capcom

Authors Note

Right now, some of you are probably wondering what George A Romero’s Resident Evil is; well allow me to explain. In 1998 legendary film maker and creator of the whole zombie apocalypse franchise as we know it was asked by Capcom to create a trailer for their up and coming video game Resident Evil 2.

Mr. Romero obliged and created two short commercials in much the same vein as he had done with his own horror masterpieces; The Living Dead Trilogy. Capcom where so impressed with the finished product (check it out online and see for yourself) that they asked Romero to write a script for a feature length Resident Evil Movie based upon the first game in that series.

The first draft was completed on October 7, 1998 and submitted to Capcom.

We are probably all familiar with the Resident Evil film franchise, currently a fifth film is nearing completion, and as you are probably aware George A Romero isn’t anywhere near the production. Why? What happened to Romero’s proposal? Capcom in response to this replied that Mr. Romero’s script ‘wasn’t very good…’

Well I and many others agree that the current garbage masquerading as a Resident Evil Film series is utter trash and an insult to an outstanding video game, having absolutely nothing to do with the original idea, indeed it seems the only reason these films are being made is so the writer and occasional director can find new ways for his wife to get her clothes off.

George Romero was shot down before he ever took flight.

However his original script found its way onto the internet and has developed a cult following all of its own, much like the first draft of Alien III another fantastic film; forever buried under a mediocre finished product.

As you will no doubt discover Mr. Romero’s story itself deviates somewhat from the original concept, however, all of the original ingredients are still there, indeed some new ones are also added and in my opinion it would have made a far better film and done more justice to the source material than the awful films that are constantly being churned out.

In Romero’s story we get to see old friends thrown into completely new encounters, interact with each other in completely new and interesting ways, characters are explored in a whole new light.

So why are you holding a novelization of a film that doesn’t exist? Well that’s simple. I, as a fan of the game franchise, was so utterly disgusted with the garbage we have been fed as a movie adaption and as a George A Romero fan, bitter at his removal from the project, that I decided it was high time we got the film we deserved. That being near impossible, I did two things.

Firstly I wrote a screenplay of my own, which is available to read online at FanFiction.net, the idea being to create a TRUE film adaption of the first video game.

And Second I wrote this; a novelization to flesh out the movie that George Romero wrote, but we could never see, in the hopes that given enough readership we can create some awareness of the dissatisfaction many of us true fans have with the films that are being made.

In writing this I have changed a number of Georges ideas (I’ll let you work out what they are), cleaned up a lot of the dialogue and expanded greatly on a lot of the characters motivations, backgrounds, portrayals and relationships. I have in no way altered the sequence of events; they are here verbatim as in the script, I have not removed any scenes, any characters, and any plot elements.

I made the changes I made to keep the story slightly more in keeping with the whole concept of the source material, I don’t think this in any way detracts from the narrative, merely changes a few minor details and allows for more meaningful character interaction, in the framework I have created.

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